This invention relates generally to the field of card issuance units. More specifically, the invention relates to reissue processing and ranking reissue records for fulfilling card issuance units (e.g., credit cards, smart cards, phone cards and the like).
Reissue processing refers to renewal of card issuance units (CIUs) prior to expiration. CIUs are credit cards, smart cards or the like, alone, or in combination with card carriers, personal information number mailers, etc. CIUs are often provided by various institutions to their customers. For example, a bank may issue a credit card for use by its customer upon credit approval. These credit cards may be produced by third parties often unrelated to the institution. When a credit card is desired, the institution forwards the cardholder""s information to a third party for embossing. The third party then embosses the cardholder information on the credit card, all on behalf of the institution. Embossing refers to imprinting the cardholder""s name and account number, etc., on the credit card. After the credit card is embossed, it is forwarded to the cardholder for use.
As generally known, credit cards often expire after a certain duration. Prior to expiration, the cardholder""s record is generated by the third party. If the cardholder""s account is eligible, a new credit card is embossed and issued to replace the old one. The process is accomplished by randomly processing reissue records for all eligible cardholders. It is therefore advantageous, to rank reissue records such that preferred records are processed first before the less preferred records.
The invention provides systems and methods for ranking reissue records. These records contain cardholder account information which is evaluated when credit cards are renewed. By using ranking, records for preferred customers are fulfilled before other customer records are processed. Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed.
In one embodiment, such a method selectively processes cardholder records according to a hierarchy in order to reissue credit cards. The method may be implemented during month-end processing, usually, two months prior to expiration of the credit card. Among other steps, the method includes assigning scores to cardholder accounts that are scheduled for reissue; and thereafter, evaluating the cardholder accounts to determine eligibility for reissue. Conveniently, such scores may be assigned by a client based on discretionary criteria.
After the scores are assigned, cardholder accounts are classified into two or more groups. Group one contains cardholders with a first set of scores while group two contains cardholders with a second set of scores. Conveniently, the first set scores may be higher scores while the second set of scores may be lower scores, for example. Contrawise, the first set of scores may be lower scores while the second set of scores may be higher scores. In this manner, preferred cardholders with lower credit risks are assigned to groups to be processed first, while higher credit risk cardholders are assigned to groups that are later processed. When sufficient resources are available, the credit cards are fulfilled. Group one records are processed first, followed by group two records. By processing records according to their groups, credit cards for preferred cardholder accounts are generated before high risk accounts are generated. In this manner, financial institutions can reduce their risk because the high risk accounts are processed last.
In an alternate embodiment, a method for ranking records in order to issue cards is disclosed. This method is generally applicable to CIUs. The method includes providing a first record for issuing a first card to a cardholder, and a second record for issuing a second card to another cardholder. In one embodiment the records contain account information for a prospective cardholder. In a further embodiment, the records contain reissue account information for a current cardholder. Thereafter, in either embodiment, a first value is assigned to the first record. The first value may be a discretionary value from the client, or an eligibility process score. Similarly, a second value different from the first is assigned to the second record. After the values are assigned, the first value is used to classify the first record into a first group while the second value is used to classify the second record into a second group. In this manner, the records in the first group are processed prior to those records in the second group.
A further embodiment of this invention may be found in a system for ranking records to reissue cards to cardholders. Among other components, the system includes programming code for assigning scores to cardholder accounts that are scheduled for reissue. Also, the system includes programming code for evaluating cardholder accounts to determine eligibility for reissue, and for assigning scores to eligible cardholder accounts. Further, the system includes programming code for classifying the cardholder into groups. It should be noted that a first group contains cardholder with a first set of scores, and a second group contains cardholder with a second set of scores. The second set of scores are different from the first set of scores. The system further includes programming code for processing the records for the first group before processing the records for the second group.